Supersilver46: Glad to hear it!
Sparkles16: Well, the first interlude is Komaeda. That's not a spolier. The second interlude is, unfortunately. So I'll just leave that one up to your deductive reasoning.
'Ding dong, bing bong. A body has been discovered. There will be a brief investigation period before the class trial.' The tension between Byakuya and the remaining students was broken by the body discovery announcement, Monobear's face appearing as soon as it went on the television. Byakuya actually looked slightly confused for once, his mouth open enough to show a bit of his teeth. His eyebrows quirked up a bit. A few other students showed this reaction to the announcement as well, including Kyouko.
She shared a look with Byakuya, nodding dismissively. All the students seemed to catch this; including me. Hifumi let out an obnoxiously loud cough, grinning as if he had just discovered his "OTP," as he would call it, had finally gotten together. Drooling at the mouth, he chuckled,
"As much as the fans would love this development, I believe an instance other than Master Celes' body's discovery would be appropriate. If you were to do this later...and let me watch, I'm sure the fans would be compelled to support your budding romance!" A few groans were let out from various mouths as Hifumi said those words. If only this wasn't about anime or fanbases or anything for once...is what I assumed everyone was thinking.
Leon groaned especially loud, actually having the gall to walk with purpose over to Hifumi just to hit over the side of the head, before striding back to his previous spot next to Sayaka with an expression of pride written all over his face.
Hifumi decided to take comfort in cowering by himself, his beefy arms over his head. Everybody seemed to decide to turn to look away from Hifumi over to Byakuya at the same time, expecting an answer to his and Kyouko's behavior. Byakuya merely smirked his trademark I-know-something-you-don't smirk before turning back to the gothically dressed body on the carpeted floor.
I dismissed his behavior. Considering it's Byakuya, it's either going to come up later or it's just him being irrationally difficult. Or both.
Suddenly a puff of smoke appeared right next to Celes, causing myself and many others in the room to gag from the sudden inhaling of it. The smoke cleared, revealing Monobear with an estatic grin on his face. At least, I think it was a grin. That might just be his normal face.
One of the few not affected by the smoke and therefore not coughing, Byakuya simply cleared his throat before saying,
"Is it really required to make such a grand entrance?" Byakuya pushed up his glasses cooly. Monobear chuckled darkly.
"Well I have to keep things interesting, don't I? What kind of host am I if I don't do
that? A bad host! If I do keep things interesting I'm-"
"-Still a host we don't like." Byakuya earned a few hoarse chuckles at his comment, most noticeably from Mondo and Leon. And me. It's not like I'm controlling Monobear anymore- If the plagiarist wished to steal my hard work so bad they would have to suffer our ridicule!
"Ouch—That hurts, Togami-kun...I thought we had something. We're both cruel, malicious, and all around sadistic..."
"Perhaps, but that doesn't excuse-"
"Alright, I'm bored." Monobear gave a yawn for emphasis. Byakuya sputtered, infuriated at being cut off, from behind the back of Monobear. Monobear walked over to the still on the ground Makoto, handing him a folder that looked just like the Monobear File from the last time. Makoto looked intensely at the folder, gulping as he plucked it from Monobear's paws and stood on shaky legs.
"Wha—"
"I'm tired of all these questions! Bears need to sleep too! The details of the gothic obsessed girl's death is in there!" Monobear's voice took a childish, malicious edge as he held his claws up at Makoto. The bear waited, as if waiting for someone to challenge him, before he waved goodbye as he walked away from the scene of the murder.
...Wait...I had just realized that I didn't even know who killed Celes! For all I knew, it could've been a suicide or even by the claws of the imposter!
I quickly followed Monobear to outside the library, shoving past my brother. I heard a distant call for my name, but honestly I did not care in the slightest who saw me. I needed to know the truth!
It seems Monobear had been waiting for me. When I had opened the doors to the hallway and turned my head to look for the two-toned bear, I had been met with a sinister smirk and two metal arms crossed.
I merely stared into the bear's red eye for a moment. Red met red, with Monobear staring straight back into my irises.
"Monobear?" Monobear place innocence, tilting his head "cutely" and blushing slightly.
"Yes?"
"How...do I discover who the killer is?" I questioned, still glaring intensely into the robot's eyes.
"That's for you to figure out, isn't it?" Monobear backfired, giggling a little. The red eye of his twinkled with artificial amusement. This is too far- I already didn't know who was controlling my android, but to even get to the point where my mastermind privileges are taken away! To say the least, I was infuriated by the "new mastermind's" slackery and encouragement of the worst kind of plagiarism-any kind of plagiarism!
I watched in contempt as Monobear attempted to walk away, instead grabbing him by the back of his neck to stop him in his tracks. I was not going to accept his attempt at running away from his crimes! I had been slacking from my prefect duties lately; not again would I make the same mistake!
Monobear squealed from under my hand, his robotic paws going to cup around my hands in struggle. I leaned up to his bear-like face, an angered vibe no doubt spewing off of me. Monobear shrank a bit.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN? WHO ARE YOU? WHAT DO I DO TO DISCOVER THE MURDERER? I DEMAND YOU ANSWER ME AT ONCE!" I couldn't help but vent all of my frustration of the last few days out on the monochrome bear. I was so enraged—I did nothing wrong, yet everything that seems suspiciously like karma seemed to indicate I did! All I did is cleanse the world of both evil and filth, something this world needed more than anything! To think I would be brought down by despicable evil-doers is unthinkable!
"Violence against the headmaster is forbidden!" The bear's red eye began to beat red along with a continuous beeping sound to go along with it. They wouldn't kill me, though! They needed me! My dedication is what was keeping the whole project going!
"ANSWER ME!"
"Violence against the headmaster is forbidden!"
"I DEMAND YOU TO PAY FOR YOUR CRIMES AND CONFESS SO YOU CAN HAVE A SOMEWHAT MERCIFUL-"
"ISHIMARU!" All of a sudden a huge weight slammed into my shoulder, sending me sprawling to the floor. A painful sting went all around my body from the damage of hitting my previous wounds once again.
An ear-splitting blast akin to that of a bomb went off somewhere near us. The horrid scent of dust and smoke filled my nostrils. Heat seared my face and body as I looked up at the devastation.
I screamed in horror as I looked at the apparent dead body of the torn-up Mondo Oowada. The same Mondo who had just saved my life. The same friend of mine who allowed me to call him brother!
Flesh littered the ground around him. A lone arm laid a few feet away from him. Overall...everything was destroyed. My whole life...everything I had worked for seemed not to matter anymore. Mondo Oowada was dead...and it was my fault.
My stupid mouth had earned him death! My brother was never coming back...
I hadn't even realized I was screaming until Makoto put a hand on my shoulder. He leaned over to me and whispered something to me, something I couldn't care less to make out.
I still stared in horror at Mondo. I felt myself crawl over to him dizzily, studying his face for any signs of life. Instead I found none.
None.
He was dead.
My brother was dead...
HE WAS DEAD!
A sob escaped my throat. Soon enough, another sob followed. Another. Another.
I hunched over Mondo's body, begging for SOMETHING to bring him back.
A tear hit his face. Then another.
I knew this was never going to bring him back though...Yet mourning the loss of the one I loved above all is all I could do. The one who had made a small shimmer of hope light up my despair. HE was the one who made me think again about everything I was doing...HE was the one who I wanted to live...
My tears caught in my throat as I stared wide-eyed at the slowly waking up form of Mondo. I felt the need to cry again with the way he stared glassily up at me, though.
"Ishimaru?" Mondo questioned weakly. He looked around, confused.
"O-OOWADA-KUN!" Mondo looked especially confused now.
"Oowada-kun? You haven't called me that for a long time..."
"W-What do you mean?"
"We were brothers, weren't we? Bros?" Mondo was looking at the ceiling now, his eyes blank.
"How—"
"Wait...I saved you...didn't I, bro?" I felt tears well up in my eyes once more. A single tear cascaded down my face as I clutched my brother's sleeve in my hand.
"Yes...You...saved my life." I managed to say through my fast approaching sobs.
"Even though you betrayed us...You were gonna make up for it, weren't you, bro? You were forced into it...They betrayed you, too. You never wanted to hurt anyone, did ya, bro?" Mondo said, still looking up at the ceiling.
"..."
"You don't have to say anythin'. I know you better then you know yourself, and I know you didn't wanna hurt us."
"B-Bro..."
"Finally..."
"Brother?"
"I killed one brother...but I saved another. At the cost of my own life, but..." My heart sank as he mumbled this...No! I wasn't going to let the most important person to me die! It wasn't happening! It wasn't!
"Bro...I'm sorry. Must suck havin' to be alone through this. Better than being dead though, right?" He gave a dry, hollow laugh.
"Please..."
"I thought I would have gone out differently, though...like a badass, ya know? Lotta police men and then about twenty bullets before I finally go down. I know you woulda wanted somethin' more honorable for me...but that's about all the honor I've got. Sorry."
"Bro...please don't leave me!"
"A bomb is kinda cool too, though, right? I mean...it looks like I have a detached arm. That's pretty badass..."
"No...You can have a much more badass death sometime else!"
"Sorry...too late for me. I already can't feel any pain. Fatal sign, ya know? My gang members that were lost in the field always said they couldn't feel any pain."
"You can't leave me!"
"I'll be fine! I'm sure there's a nice place reserved in hell for me. Same for you. We'll see each other again eventually!"
"Brother!"
"You still have some sins to make up. Well...I do too, but both me and you know that'd take a life-time to make up for. I guess the same is true for you, but you can at least try to restore the world!"
"P-PLEASE! I'M BEGGING YOU!"
"I love you, man."
Mondo's eyes finally shut, his entire body suddenly slacking.
"BROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I screamed, desperate for the only person in my life that mattered to come back to me.
"Ah...Such a wasted death. Oh well! I suppose I won't kill you today—You're too important to be killed anyways. Well, at least right now." A brand new android of Monobear piped in.
I would of immediately tried to virtually kill whoever was in the Monobear suit if not for Kyouko, who seemed to sense my distress.
"Remember that Oowada-kun sacrificed himself because of the same mistake you were about to make again. Do not put his death in vain." I looked up solemnly at her, my vision of her blurred with unshed tears.
I looked at Mondo once more. He looked peaceful in death...in the worst way possible.
I looked back at Kyouko. She looked oddly empathetic to my pain...
I wrapped my arms tightly around her legs, squeezing them as I cried my heart out for the one I love. She patted my head awkwardly, but I didn't care. I just needed support for everything...Everything that was Mondo.
Mondo...Brother...
Please forgive me.
I got unbelievably sad writing this...Anyways, remember to favorite and follow both Despairingly Perfect and I, and to DEFINITELY review; especially for this chapter.
Question: Were you surprised at the...events of this chapter?